The Port

Weekends are for birding but with builders in the house, there was the inevitable aftermath of the clearing up. Sunday I got stuck into the clear up operation so had to give birding a miss and now on Monday I'm painting,

So for today I’m posting pictures of the recent holiday to Menorca with a morning trip to Es Grau, the tiny fishing village on the north-east coast.  "Es Grau" is not Spanish but Catalan and means "The Port"

Es Grau is home to the well-known nature reserve of S’albufera where there’s a rich variety of bird life. Sand dunes, wetlands and scrubland make up one of Menorca’s most beautiful and peaceful locations. The reserve stretches 8km north along the coast from Cap de Favaritx and contains over 100 species of birds and animals living in their natural habitat. It’s fairly important to arrive here early with a large bottle of water for the hours ahead, not to mention beating the procession of visitors, often school parties learning about their environment.

On the way there and up on roadside wires we spotted a European Roller, the only one of the two week holiday and a much sought after species. It was just a shame that the bird was above a particularly fast piece of road with no stopping places. Despite turning the car around in a gateway and looking afresh, there was nowhere to pull in for a closer look or a picture.

So we headed for the entrance gate from where around the edges of the pool and by searching hard we found 6 or more Black-crowned Night Herons, a few feeding on the tree-lined perimeter, the others just roosting in the higher branches. Here we also found a couple of Little Egrets, Black-winged Stilts, Audouin’s Gulls and Yellow-legged Gulls.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Not far from the visitor centre and watching from screen hides found many distant waterbirds, more gulls, hundreds of Coot, dozens of Little Grebe, a dozen or more Great Crested Grebe and even two Greater Flamingos. Unfortunately most of the birds remain distant on the huge expanse of water, both open and reed fringed but it’s a peaceful and relaxed environment in which to spend a morning or longer.

Hide at Es Grau

Little Grebe

Black-winged Stilt

The usual raptors were in evidence – Red Kites, Booted Eagles, Marsh Harriers and Kestrels plus a bonus in the shape of a dashing Peregrine Falcon. Peregrines aren’t numerous in Menorca but they do nest around the often rocky and remote coastline.

Along the paths we heard the purring of Turtle Doves without actually getting any really exciting or prolonged views. Similalry the Nightingales, Cetti's Warblers and Sardinian Warblers stay out of sight while proclaiming their prescence.

Turtle Dove

Purple Herons mostly remain hidden from sight as they sneak through the reeds hoping to catch unwary prey. That’s a mighty big dagger of a bill than can easily despatch a good sized Coot, Moorhen, Little Grebe or an unsuspecting frog or lizard.

Purple Heron

We encountered good numbers of Spotted Flycatchers here, not unreasonable since it is a common resident of Menorca whereby by mid to late May it’s fairly certain that migrants heading for northern Europe are long gone.

The local Spotted Flycatchers Muscicapa striata balearica are smaller, noticeably paler, and less streaked than their northern counterparts as can be seen from the pictures below, my Menorca photos from early May. For comparison, the third image is the type  of Spotted Flycatcher that we see in the UK. Dutch birders are currently working on the idea that Mediterranean Spotted Flycatchers should be treated as a full and separate species, one differing from Muscicapa striata in morphology, migration and mitochondrial and nuclear DNA.

Spotted Flycatcher - Muscicapa striata balearica 

Spotted Flycatcher - Muscicapa striata balearica

Spotted Flycatcher - Muscicapa striata - Photo credit- Ian N. White via / CC BY-NC-SA

Moorish Gecko was a first for me. It’s native to the Western Mediterranean region of Europe and North Africa and widely introduced to America and Asia. It is commonly observed on walls in urban environments, mainly in warm coastal areas, though it can spread inland - especially in Spain 

Moorish Gecko

S'albufera

I hope everyone enjoyed the morning in Menorca. Come evening time we decided to try a glass of Cava and a few chocolates brought all the way from Belgium by two friends and blog fans, Ivan and Jeni. 

Belgian treats

Thanks guys. the chocs sustained a little superficial damage on their long journey but after close inspection they were just fine. A lovely ending to a perfect Menorcan day.

Linking today to World Bird Wednesday .

Sniffing Out The Birds

My thanks to many blog readers for their sympathy, advice and tips to defeat my common cold of almost three weeks. Something finally worked to make me 99% operational apart from a lingering sniffle. I suspect it was the home made garlic and tomato soup, so stand well clear for a birding update from today. 

Thick cloud was slow to clear and it was 0930 before I arrived at Pilling to flights of Whooper Swans heading strongly inland from their roost out on the salt marsh. The twenty-four I saw was but a small sample of the hundreds in the area. A typical winter count for the Pilling area is 300-400 but I have seen up to 480 in one particular year, a breath-taking sight with an awesome soundtrack. 

Whooper Swans

Little Egrets seem to have adopted a field close to Lane Ends where this morning I counted 15 of them feeding in the grass. When I drove back the same way hours later the number had reduced to five. There was a Kestrel using the fence posts alongside the road but as an experienced adult and accustomed to constant passing traffic, there was no way it would let me get close. 

Kestrel

A Sparrowhawk came from the plantation and headed off low in the direction of the village where there are bird feeders aplenty. One of the hazards of visiting gardens is that occasionally a hawk may stun or kill itself by colliding with a glass window, just as the Sparrowhawk below found in Pilling village beneath a window. 

Sparrowhawk

Karen in Ontario has mixed feelings about regular garden visits from a Cooper’s Hawk Accipiter cooperii, a close relative of our own Eurasian Sparrowhak Accipiter nisus. Both birds have similar habits and will target concentrations of birds as an efficient and cost-effective way of hunting which has little risk to them. Meanwhile Karen’s Cooper's Hawk is alive and very well. 

I found another 18 Whooper Swans with 6 Mute Swans in a field alongside the A588 at Sand Villa, Cockerham and on my way to Conder Green. 

Swans - Cockerham Marsh

At Conder Green little had changed from my last visit pre-Christmas with too much water giving just the usual smattering of wildfowl: 1 Grey Heron, 1 Cormorant, 2 Goldeneye, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Goosander, 2 Tufted Duck, 60+ Teal and 12 Wigeon. On the island 3 Snipe almost melted into the vegetation while a single Lapwing may have an eye on a territory here in the coming weeks. 

There are still 6 Little Grebe on the pool plus one or two in the creeks with the count varying as the species is so shy and secretive, even outside of the breeding season. 

Little Grebe

Little Grebe has a wide distribution, their breeding range extending across Europe, central/southern Asia and central/southern Africa, to Japan and Papua New Guinea in the east. In Europe, they breed from Iberia and Britain & Ireland in the west as far as the borders of Russia and the Caucasus. In the eastern part of this range, Little Grebes are totally migratory, with birds moving south and west in winter to avoid the severe continental winters. 

 

Range of Little Grebe  - www.avibirds.com

Elsewhere in its European range the species is a partial migrant, with some birds being resident, whilst others move to coastal waters, where feeding occurs in shallow tidal areas. Every January I see good numbers of Little Grebes at a coastal lagoon and salinas in Lanzarote, Spain where I suspect they are winterers from the colder parts of Europe, some possibly from Britain. 

Close to the main road was another Kestrel, not a common bird here at the pool although I have seen one here on the last three visits. 

Kestrel

Near the car park I found 15 Chaffinch and 2 Pied Wagtail and discovered that someone has chopped down a couple or more very old and valuable hawthorn trees where thrushes and finches feed and hide. 

Take your eyes off somewhere for a week or two and the vandals move in. Back to birding UK style 2015. 

Sniffing out more birds soon with Another Bird Blog.

In the meantime linking to Anni's Blog, Eileen's Blog and Run-a-Roundranch.

Better Than Shopping

After a five-day Atlantic conveyor belt of rain, wind and grey skies hit our region I was ready to bin my bins and instead take up a pastime less weather dependent. This morning the sky turned a whiter shade of grey and as an alternative to Christmas shopping I plucked up the courage to go birding. The wind hadn’t dropped though and the morning was both cold and very blustery. 

I stopped at Pilling expecting to see a Barn Owl after the poor hunting weather of the last week. Although one appeared on cue I was slightly disappointed with mostly distant views of it quartering the fields and then briefly fence hopping. After just a minute or two the owl had departed over the fields and towards its daytime roost, this individual’s usual trick. 

Barn Owl

Barn Owl - off to roost

In a field close to Lane Ends I counted 14 Little Egrets. They had clearly just vacated the roost but chosen to feed in a wet field rather than head out to the extremely windy shore. There seemed to be lots of waders on the same fields and when I returned this way later as the tide rose and into better light I counted in excess of 2500 Lapwings, 650 Curlew and 240 Redshank, not to mention hundreds of Black-headed Gulls.

Lapwing

At Thurnham was a Kestrel, hovering at the roadside but an awkward spot to stop a car when others were speeding by on their way to work. As I arrived at Conder Green, another Kestrel, this one hovering over the marsh before trying its luck further away. I lost interest in the unhelpful Kestrel and looked on the choppy waters of the pool and in the more sheltered creeks.

While many species abandon the windswept pool and the vagaries of the tidal channels the tiny but hardy Little Grebes stick it out in most weathers. Ten Little Grebes today, along with 90+ Teal, 26 Wigeon,2 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Egrets, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Spotted Redshank and 1 Common Sandpiper, all equally determined to spend Christmas at Conder Green.

Little Grebe

 
At Glasson Dock the Tufted Duck numbers have inexplicably dropped from 70/80 to something like 25 today, less than double the count of 14 Goldeneye, and not forgetting singles of Little Grebe and Grey Heron.

I hung around watching the antics of the male Goldeneye trying to impress the females with their head bobbing and stretching displays. Go easy boys, you’ll end up Christmas shopping if you’re not careful.
  

I note there are a few things on the bird listers circuit this holiday week. There’s a long suffering Shore Lark at Rossall which now has more portraits on the Internet than Angelina Jolie. Alternatively there’s an equally tormented Snow Bunting at Fleetwood, the little bird currently experiencing flashbacks of humans carrying large instruments of torture.

And now suddenly everyone is bursting to see a couple of Canada Geese, a bird they don’t normally touch with a bargepole and certainly not a telescope. But in this case as a sub-species of Branta canadensis and therefore only half a tick maybe it is preferable to being dragged Christmas shopping with the other half?

Enjoy your Christmas everyone.

Linking today to Eileen's Blog,  Theresa's Christmas Ranch and Christmas Birds in Australia.

Birding Saturday 27th September

There were a number of old friends at Conder Green on Saturday, species I’d not seen for 3 weeks whilst otherwise engaged by a fortnight in Greece and other essentials of life. 

The Kingfisher was predictable enough on such a calm and sunny morning but apart from 15 Little Grebe, a single Tufted Duck and the regular 2 Wigeon, most of the birds were found in the creeks. The Kingfisher turned its back on me and then after trying its luck elsewhere came back for another go but in a more camera friendly pose. Two Grey Wagtails tried to get in on the act as the camera focused on the main attraction. 

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

The Little Grebes here are so wary that it’s almost impossible to get any sort of picture, and although I counted fifteen of them, they are scattered across the water and mostly distant. 

Little Grebe

As I stood at the roadside a couple of Reed Buntings dropped into the hedgerow making their characteristic autumnal call; and there seemed to be a few Meadow Pipits on the move. A few hours later would see a major rush of pipits and Skylarks heading south over Cockersands. 

The creeks provided a really good selection of waders by way of a single Ruff, 12 Snipe, 4 Greenshank, 2 Spotted Redshank, 65 Redshank, 8 Lapwing, 6 Curlew, 1 Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Common Sandpipers. That’s an impressive assortment by any standards and a huge improvement on one Dunlin in Skiathos. 

One Goosander and 50+ Teal represented the wildfowl while 5 Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron scored for the heron team. 

A walk along the old railway proved useful for finding a flock of Goldfinch, 140+ birds feeding on the saltmarsh, the finches using the tree line as a sanctuary from their sudden and as far as I could see unjustified panics. However you can be sure that a Sparrowhawk won’t be too far away from so many meals on offer. 

The Goldfinch looks pretty puffed-up but then there was quite an autumn nip in the morning air which required three layers for this bush bashing birder. 

Goldfinch

Otherwise, a Great-spotted Woodpecker, 8 or 10 Greenfinch disappeared quickly from view, a number of House Martins congregated around their homes and 20ish Swallows headed clearly south without lingering. 

These dark September mornings leave only an hour or two before the weekend’s fluorescent joggers and Day-Glo cyclists emerge to blight the countryside, so as they materialised in unison I headed to hopefully quieter Cockersands. 

Just before the cottage and in the roadside trees I found a flock of 20+ Greenfinch. That must be some sort of a record of recent years for the once abundant finch?

By now it was 0945 with Meadow Pipits pouring off the river from the direction of Sunderland Point, over my head and beyond and then heading south. There were Skylarks too. I stayed for 30 minutes and as cloud rolled in from the south so the pipits and larks stopped as suddenly as they seemed to begin. A snapshot in time of approximately 120 Meadow Pipits and 30 Skylarks. 

Meadow Pipit

At the distant lighthouse a gang of crows gave stick to a Peregrine which unconcerned at the furore took up its spot on the old hand rails to survey the scene. "Click the pic" to Spot the Peregrine if you can, and needless to say there are no waders in sight after the Peregrine's sorties.

 Cockersands Lighthouse - Spot the Peregrine

So, a rewarding three hours of birding and not bad for a Saturday morning. There's more birding soon on Another Bird Blog.

Bush Bashing

There was a fair amount of bush-bashing from me today without too much success in the way of rarities, just the common warblers. Oh well, shouldn’t complain, it was a lovely morning and I saw loads of birds. 

For readers unfamiliar with the term “bush-bashing” it refers to migration time when bird watchers look in suitable areas of habitat in the hopes of finding fresh-in migrant birds, the rarer the bird the better. Despite the frightening terminology there is no actual demolition of trees and hedgerows it’s more like a slow, thorough and meticulous search with ears pricked in the hope of seeing or hearing something out of the ordinary. 

That’s not to say the occasional over enthusiastic birder keen to impress or make their mark won’t occasionally tap a bush with a stick or chuck the odd rock into a hawthorn hedge to encourage an as yet unseen bird to show. Thank goodness for Birder’s Law Number One, “The welfare of the bird is paramount”. 

Glasson first stop and stopped in my tracks to watch a Grey Heron grabbing the early morning rays with help from a built in solar panel. I don’t think it was drying off as Cormorants do, just enjoying the morning sun like me. 

Grey Heron

Sunrise - The River Lune- Skywatch Friday

From the entrance to the car park I spotted the outline of a Kingfisher sat on the ropes of the sunken boat but as the car scrunched over the gravel towards the towpath the bird flew off. Not to worry, there would probably be a Kingfisher at Conder Green. And there was. 

Once again a good number of Swallows around the boats and something like 500/600 but no sign of the Hobby of wishful thinking, just a Common Tern hunting for fish. Along the towpath - 40+ Alba wagtails, 1 Grey Wagtail and further along 2 Chiffchaff. 

Pied Wagtail

The warblers were mostly at Conder Green, skulking along the old railway line or flitting through the trees of the long neglected orchard, with a Willow Warbler, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Whitethroat and 2 Blackcap. There was evidence of Chaffinches on the move by way of their autumnal “pink-pink” calls and extra birds around than of late. 

Chaffinch

Meanwhile, and over at the pool a Kingfisher turned its back on me and the 7 Little Grebes left their usual safety margin of many yards. Here at Conder Green it’s easier to get pictures of a Kingfisher than it is to snap a Little Grebe. 

Kingfisher

Little Grebe

Waders today - 6 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Greenshank, 3 Snipe, 2 Common Sandpiper, 60+ Lapwing, 30 Redshank and a couple of Curlew. 

Black-tailed Godwit

Odds and Sods - 20 Teal, 4 Cormorant, 4 Common Tern, 2 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 2 Wigeon. 

 Grey Heron

The next picture of a juvenile Starling is for students of moult and those who like to age and sex birds in the field. During the summer and autumn young Starlings have a complete moult of all their juvenile feathers, gradually replacing them with adult type ones. Their moult can last from May/June right through to late September but can vary geographically or according to the individual bird. It’s certainly a weird looking specimen. The poor thing looks like it was dragged through a bush backwards. 

Starling 

Please join Another Bird Blog soon for another bash at birding.

Linking today to Anni's Blog and Eileeen's Saturday Blog.

Is It Here Yet?

There are signs the end of the atrocious winter weather may be in sight, and Spring around the corner. It certainly felt like that this morning when the sun shone and the wind dropped to less than 15mph, almost perfect birding conditions. 

I set off for Pilling where a pair of early morning Kestrels greeted me on the roadside at Damside. In some years Little Owls have used the nest box so it looks like the Kestrels have first shout this time. 

Kestrel

I decided to give Fluke Hall a try where I was dismayed to find shooters on the maize fields and so above the high water mark, where as I understand it, the “season” for shooting wildfowl should have ended on 31st January. A small pile of corpses littered the sea wall but I was too far off to make out the species. 

Despite the loud guns there were a number of Lapwings and Redshanks on the flood, some 95 and 8 respectively, also 10/12 Linnet and 15 or so Skylarks. Later, and as I walked the sea wall I saw and heard a good number of Skylarks, some in song, others in obvious territorial disputes, with a morning total of 30+ birds. 

Fluke Hall Lane and the wood itself proved quite productive with 2 singing Song Thrush, a pair of Mistle Thrush, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Treecreeper, 2 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Buzzard, 2 Jays, a minimum of 12 Blackbirds and 3/4 Chaffinches in song. 

Jay

By now the shooters had driven discreetly off the track in their mud spattered Land Rovers, Range Rover and Navarra so I walked the now very quiet sea wall to Lane Ends. 

A good selection of birds ensued, circa 850 Pink-footed Goose, 7 Little Egret, 3 Meadow Pipit, 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Peregrine, 1 Brent Goose and a good number of the aforementioned Skylarks. The Brent was alone on the salt marsh and not in the company of Pink-footed Geese or Shelduck, species it might be expected to mix with.

Brent Goose

At Lane Ends it was good to hear the trilling of courting Little Grebes, an unmistakeable sound emanating from the pool hidden from view. A couple of Chaffinches in song here too. 

Little Grebe

Maybe Spring is finally on the way? If so Another Bird Blog will be there to record the details, so log in very soon.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Sunday 29th September 2013

Another bright, breezy if not completely sunny start today so once again I set off in a northerly direction. Well there are worse places to bird than Conder Green,  I can assure you. 

The sun wasn’t quite up so I had to use a less than ideal and "noisy" ISO800 to snap the Kingfisher again, either that or hope the bird might reappear in the bright sunshine which threatened.  Often the Kingfisher is hard to find, especially once passing traffic starts and more people appear. The responses from around the globe to my Kingfisher pics invariably relate how members of the kingfisher family are shy the world over. 

Kingfisher

When the Kingfisher sped off towards the road bridge it was “search for Little Grebes time” as they are often partially out of sight, tucked into the edges of the islands or at least one or two of them constantly diving for food. Just seven today makes me wonder about the turnover of birds and how many in total have passed through the site in recent weeks. 

Little Grebe

Apart from the grebes the pool was pretty much deserted with Wigeon numbering just four on the pool although another 25 or more could be seen from the railway bridge. A single Cormorant, a lonely Little Egret and a few Teal completed the count on the pool. Luckily the creeks proved more rewarding with 2 Spotted Redshank, 18 Redshank, 3 Snipe, 3 Curlew , 40 Teal, 1 Goldeneye, 2 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Grey Wagtail and the Kingfisher again. 

Redshank

A Chiffchaff was along the old railway track together with a flock of 30 Goldfinches. Activity above came in the form of a Kestrel, a Sparrowhawk, and as the air warmed, a movement of Swallows numbering some 30+ birds flying determinedly south in loose twos, threes and fours. 

There was another Chiffchaff at Glasson, this one making location easier by singing from the trees opposite the Victoria pub. A quick count of the wildfowl, 25 Tufted Duck, 75 Coot, 1 Grey Heron and 1 Cormorant then it was home time. 

Tufted Duck

No birding on Mondays for Another Bird Blog, but never fear, back soon.

Linking today to Stewart's Photo Gallery.

Dim And Distant

It was yet another murky, grey and overcast start today, the third such day on the trot, conditions which are far from ideal for studying the autumn’s visible migration, so today's post definitely has something of a a grey theme about it.

In the past few days I’ve noted a trickle of Meadow Pipits, an obvious influx of Chiffchaffs and for me at least a noticeable movement of Skylarks. Today I gave Conder Green some serious stick without turning very much up and then finished off with a look at Lane Ends, Pilling. Through the gloom of Conder Pool I could see that the numbers of Little Grebe had increased to 11 birds; the site has become something of a winter stronghold for the species in recent years. There are six grebes in the photo below, the camera taking the picture at ISO4000 after I set the ISO speed to “auto” to account for the gloom. 

Little Grebe

Also on the pool, 4 Wigeon, 3 Cormorant, 5 Little Egret and 8+ Teal. I waited for the Kingfisher to appear and although it obliged, that picture was also taken at ISO4000 - not good. The second picture was taken in exactly the same spot on a much brighter morning some months ago. The moral is perhaps to forget photography on such dim and gloomy days. 

Kingfisher

 Kingfisher

The roadside creeks held a single Snipe, 1 Common Sandpiper, 2 Pied Wagtail, 4 Curlew, 1 Lapwing, 18 Redshank, 1 Ruff, and another 25 Teal. “Bush bashing” along the old railway path turned up a single Chiffchaff, several Robins and a couple of calling Chaffinch, not much evidence of new arrivals. It was good to find a large flock of Goldfinch, at least 140 birds along the edge of the marsh but very flighty between there and the tall trees beyond the car park. 

At Glasson I counted the wildfowl on the yacht basin - 80 Coot and 25 Tufted Duck, plus the obligatory Grey Heron. Two Grey Wagtails here were the only signs of new arrivals. 

Grey Heron

Grey Wagtail

I arrived at Lane Ends in time to see many noisy skeins of Pink-footed Geese heading back out to the marsh - no doubt disturbed from a feeding spot inland by farming activities. At least 1400 birds, without counting those distant on the marsh which didn't set off inland at dawn. 

On the east pool, the only open water now visible, 7 Shoveler and a single Little Grebe. Otherwise, 2 Meadow Pipits and a single Grey Wagtail below the sea wall plus a Great-spotted Woodpecker and 2 Jays in the woodland. 

Shoveler

More news and colourful pictures soon from Another Bird Blog.